I’m writing this blog to you on a Thursday due to the holiday weekend. Usually my blog comes out on a Monday, so this “week” is a little bit abbreviated.

As you can tell, the last few weeks have been incredibly busy with a lot of family, school, work, and training obligations. I’ve done very well, despite the external factors, in staying on track in the gym and getting workouts done. However, they have not been my best performances physically or mentally. I find myself in “panic” mode after two or three rounds, breathing too heavily, hunched over on my knees, and coming close to tears. I am probably going too hard right out of the gate, forgetting to pace, and losing steam quickly. This is incredibly frustrating, to feel exhausted in the first few minutes of a workout.

I had a good talk yesterday with my personal coach, Don Ricci, about these “feelings” during metabolic conditioning workouts. He reminded me that a huge part of feeling confident during a workout is my physical positioning and simply standing up tall to catch my breath and to relax my face. This change in physical state can help not only to increase oxygen consumption through good posture, but have an effect on my mental state by presenting a confident stance. If you look good, you feel good - right?

Another small success I noticed was during a mile run to finish our workout. I have been able to remember a repeatable mantra while running and it creates a rhythmic beat for me to run to. Focusing on this mantra keeps my mind from wandering, holds a steady pace, and helps me to run better. The next step here is to remember to use this mantra during workouts in order to shift my body into automatic, and to simply be convinced of what I’m doing. If I am convinced, I am not questioning, not doubting, just doing what I need to do.